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Turn On TV Week
by kmikeym
I was watching the Colbert Report last night and he mentioned that it was TV Turnoff Week and everyone watching was a hypocrite. I've been aware of TV Turnoff Week in the past, but I always thought it was some Adbusters campaign. Turns out it's the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness, a Washington D.C. non-profit led by Robert Kesten.
Robert Kesten says, "Excessive use of screens has led, in the West, to obesity, illiteracy, antisocial behaviors and violence." And yet, we is also a documentary filmmaker and the president and founder of The Director's View Film Festival.
To be fair, TV Turnoff Week is directed towards kids. But they have expanded the "TV" to include computer screens, and it seems like in this age of DVR and the time-shifted viewing we are no longer the captives to television that we were back in 1995 when this crazy idea started. And this idea is crazy! Kesten says, "Doctors recommend no more than 1-2 hours of overall screen-time per day... we think everyone can live with that." (Remember he is including computers as screens!)
Robert Kesten needs to specify that this is about the kids. The website says that TV Turnoff Week is for "Children and adults." Limiting screen time for kids, sure, who is going to argue with that? But for adults... Sorry Kesten, I work on the computer and I have a filmfest to attend this weekend and Heroes is back on and LOST is really good and I have some great NetFlix waiting for me and I still need to play Super Paper Mario. I don't consider these things a waste of my time or antisocial. The warm glow of the screen is a creative inspiration and canvas. I think rather than demonizing TV we need to teach kids how to use it better. Screw TV Turnoff Week, what we need is national "Create TV Week".
I am all about limiting screen time...and "page time" and "needle time" (I don't have a TV but I am a compulsive reader & knitter). I think the point is that when you're watching TV or sitting in front of the 'puter so much that you're not doing much else - getting outside, having one-on-one conversations with your friends, getting exercise, eating good food, having sex, whatever - then your life is diminished, regardless of whether you're a child or an adult. For me at least, TV is like alcohol: a little now and then is fun, but if I'm consuming it in large quantities or every day, I feel less alive and more...blah. I am not saying that you or anyone else uses TV/screens in this way, but a LOT of Americans do. Lost may be great, but at my old job it (and ANTM) were literally the ONLY subjects of conversation around the water cooler. It was like everyone was weird cyborgs who were all plugged into the same outlet every night.
I don't know. It's only a week. I think it's an interesting exercise to give things up for short periods of time, even things I really love, just to see what it's like to do other activities - shake my schedule up a little bit, get out of my rut. And then when I return to my loved avocation, I appreciate it even more. I don't think that idea is crazy at all. In conclusion, sunshine & lollipops.
Posted by: Emily at April 27, 2007 5:10 PM